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A Piece of the Action (episode)
Searching for a Starfleet ship missing for 100 years, the ''Enterprise'' finds a planet that has based its culture on the gangsters of Earth's 1920s. Summary SUMMARY Background Information * Before it was decided they would focus on the events of "The Trouble with Tribbles", the Deep Space Nine writing staff toyed with the idea of the DS9 crew visiting Sigma Iotia II and finding they had all imitated the Enterprise crew and wore TOS style uniforms. * Bantam Books published a series of novelizations called "foto-novels," which took photographic stills from actual episodes and arranged word balloons and text over them, to create a comic book formatted story. The eighth installment was an adaptation of this episode. * Anthony Caruso wrote a very enjoyable foreword for that Fotonovel in the character of Bela Oxmyx. * The street seen throughout this episode is on the Paramount lot and can be seen in many television series. The steps leading up to Oxmyx's headquarters were used in the Judd Hirsch series, "Dear John." * Bela is called Oxmyx in the script, but the dartboard poster in the episode says Okmyx. * Hadley is given his name in this episode. * There are few moments more hilarious in TOS than Kirk trying to drive a flivver. However, close behind in a list of the series' funniest scenes has to be the game of fizzbin. Shatner's acting during the card game is delightful, as he does a great job bringing across the fact that Kirk is inventing the game as he explains it. * This is the only episode of TOS to end in a freeze-frame. * No stardate is actually logged in the episode. The stardate shown, 4598.0, is from Bjo Trimble's Star Trek Concordance, apparently using an earlier script version, and the photonovel provides a closing stardate 4598.7. This stardate makes "A Piece of the Action" both stardatewise and production-wise the episode that occurs just before By Any Other Name. * With only one line of dialogue (the first sentence in the episode), this is Walter Koenig's smallest speaking part ever in TOS. * In The Star Trek Sketchbook, his interesting book on the costumes and art direction of the original series, Herb Solow shows a yellow costume for "Marlys" that he says no one can identify. It is, in fact, the costume Marlys Burdette wore in this episode. *George Takei (Sulu) does not appear in this episode. Memorable Quotes * "Captain, you are an excellent Starship commander. But as a taxi driver, you leave much to be desired." - Spock * "All right, boys, the Federation's movin' in, we're takin' over. You play ball, we'll cut you in for a piece of the pie. If ya don't, you're out - all the way out, y'know what I mean?" - Kirk * "I'd advise yas to keep dialin', Oxmyx." - "Spocko" Links and References Regular Cast * William Shatner as Kirk * Leonard Nimoy as Spock * DeForest Kelley as McCoy * James Doohan as Scott * Nichelle Nichols as Uhura * Walter Koenig as Chekov Guest Stars * Anthony Caruso as Bela Oxmyx * Vic Tayback as Jojo Krako * Lee Delano as Kalo * Steven Marlo as Zabo * John Harmon as Tepo * Buddy Garion as Karf * Jay Jones as Mirt * Dyanne Thorne as First Girl * Sharyn Hillyer as Second Girl * Sheldon Collins as Tough Kid * Marlys Burdette as Krako's Girl * Eddie Paskey as Leslie (uncredited) * William Blackburn as Hadley (uncredited) * Frank da Vinci as Brent (uncredited) * Roger Holloway as Roger Lemli (uncredited) * James Doohan as the Radio Announcer (uncredited) * Unknown as Bela's Gun Moll References Beta Antares IV; Boss; "Chicago Mobs of the Twenties"; Cirl the Knife; fizzbin; heater; ''Horizon'', USS; Iotian; Jailbreakers, the; Prime Directive; Sigma Iotia II; subspace radio; transtator. Piece of the Action, A de:Epigonen nl:A Piece of the Action